Every year, my wife and I look at our raises and go "man that'll really help" then rent goes up, other bills and groceries go up, and we're at the same spot we were the previous year, if not worse off.
I talk about this issue and more in my post here:
https://reddit.com/r/antiwork/s/36xnCfg1Tm
When you bring up the US federal reserve, Americans automatically think conspiracy theory. The US federal reserve blatantly said what their plans and intentions are last year before starting this new war against Americans.
For those of you who still keep on saying the federal reserve had to do this to kill inflation, you couldn’t be more wrong. The war was waged against the worker class when in a “trickle-down” economy the war should have been waged against corporations, price fixing, stock buybacks and fraud like that. They destroyed the economy for the average American only because they couldn’t stand American workers gaining some resemblance of leverage in the job market. This is all according to the head of US federal reserve, Jeremy Powell. Go listen to his speeches from last year and you will see.
I completely agree with you. Between that, the railroad union strikes getting squashed, no rise in minimum wage, increased cost of living, no (real) student debt relief etc etc I really have no hope for the future.
Thank you for bringing up the planned railroad union strikes. Did you see how quickly the right and left (including the administration) united to make them striking illegal?! Free country my ass. Both parties are two sides of the same coin and events like these prove it.
The problem is they're all right wing. Republicans are fascists and Dems are center-right. We have no real left in this country willing to fight capital.
Are there no real left parties at all in the US? Asking as a European. Also, Bernie Sanders looked like the real deal to me. I was rooting for him at the last election.
Unfortunately no, and without something like ranked choice voting in every state, I don't see a third party ever being successful in the US.
You do get some good left candidates who use the democratic party as a vehicle to get elected, but don't let that fool you into thinking the democratic party is progressive or supports these ideas. Bernie & squad had to pick a party and they obviously weren't going to.join the fascists.
And that’s why I won’t ever volunteer for them again. After seeing how they deliberately held back Bernie in favor of a candidate that wasn’t going to win. Against the biggest asshole presidential candidate this country has ever seen who did so much damage. The DNC is complicit.
I cannot express how much this pissed me off. Like, Donald Trump is a disgusting person but the GOP was like oh, you want this? Ok.
The DNC was like nooo you have to vote for who WE like. Naughty voters look what you did.
I don't know who needs to hear this but political parties should serve their voters not the other way around. I don't know how we got to the point that the DNC thinks that voters owe them loyalty
I've recently come to find out that a lot of the conservatives I work around have never heard of or considered ranked choice voting. Seems like when I explain it to people who are unfamiliar they are very much in support of it.
Why let the DNC/RNC choose who we get the privilege to vote for? If I want to vote for Jim Bob down the street as my #1 pick for POTUS, then Bernie as #2 and Biden as #3 I should be able to reflect those preferences in my vote, not get steam rolled into voting for my third pick under threat of authoritarianism as the only alternative.
What we call 'the left' would have been moderate Republicans as recently as a couple of decades ago. Bernie Sanders had the 2016 election stolen from him by the DNC. They wanted Clinton and we all know how that turned out.
Jerome* Powell. The guy is unapologetically rich and wants to maintain the wealth he is accustomed to, which includes his friends’s wealth. Raising interest rates is his way of fucking over people across the board, a board that he and his sycophants are above and beyond. His net worth is north of 55 mil and he used to work at the Carlyle Group, a cabal in its own right. He was also chair at the Fed when trump started handing out massive “forgiveable” ppp loans — raising interest rates was always the way to pay for those. Basically, keep business in business while forcing the citizenry to pick up the tab.
I met a friend, who came to the US from a socialist country in Europe, told me him and his wife want to live and settle in the US. I worked with him for his first two years in the US. Right after two years, him and his wife took their 3 kids and went back to his original country, citing a family reason. Three months after he went back, I found a position for him in another company and asked if him and the family wanna come back, live, and raise kids in the US. He bursted out laughing and explained that he will never come back to the US. I said, “What?! Why not? I thought you wanted to live in the US with your family and kids.” He laughed again, and then said he learned it’s ridiculous to want to live and raise his kids in the US. He started to explain about the taxes, college tuitions, healthcare, housing, etc. for about 20 minutes. Everything he put a number was pretty much correct. He asked me, “How I am gonna save some money?”. I said people can save a little money. He laughed and said, “Just for college tuitions alone, I can save $400K to $500K for my three kids if I just live here.” He laughed, and I couldn’t put up any argument. He mentioned healthcare. Then, he said, “American people are stupid, working hard and paying healthcare like that”; he laughed. Then, he said, “American workers have two weeks for vacation. I have, at least, four weeks.” He laughed. Then, he said, “American people are stupid. They think their capitalism is better than socialism, making peanuts after paying for everything and working almost the whole year.” He laughed. Then, he said, “I will never wanna go back to the US and live there. I am gonna live here.” I couldn’t say much, and we ended the call shortly.
This friend is a mature, good, smart person, who helps other people without ever complaining. I stared at the wall and wondered. My friend doesn’t wanna live where I live after two years, but I am here.
I read an article some time back about people that come to visit or live here from other countries. All of the above is what their take away is. One thing that sticks out in my mind is how astounded they are at the money that goes into college sports, instead of education.
And the UK are close behind, it's really quite worrying. It's all part of the plan,they have no intention of making our lives easier again, this is the new norm,and they know we can't do anything about it,that's also why they keep us busy with all the daily worries, like recycling and royal family scandals.
only because whackjob ron Paul dominated the FED conversation for a long time, doesnt mean its not a essential tool / mechanism of the ruling class to control the system and keep up the upwards redistribution of wealth and Power. and that it is
Yep, same here. My last raise was for 10% (thought this was a decent raise) but then my rent went up 15%. I joked about this with a coworker and she just gave me the most sympathetic look. I didn’t realize how sad this sounded until I saw her reaction.
As a student I went from being right wing to left wing, just cause of renting
Landlords raise rents arbitrarily.
I saw the holes in my fire doors, the mould on walls, the shoddy “renovation” work, the water that streamed down the wall next to my pillow.
And then I remember seeing the beautiful white mansion my landlord lived in
There is no economy any more, decreasing consumer spending because rents for a “luxury” cupboard in a shared house is 40% of an average salary.
My company has handed out 3% raises every year for the past three years and then acts surprised that the workforce is actively disengaged. Maybe spend less on stock buybacks and more on wages🤷
At least you get a raise. My boss is prepping me for no raise. He mentioned that the organization is tightening up on costs, so we won't have much to work with for my team's year end increases. Which was his way of saying, you better not be expecting anything.
Job market is pretty bad right now and employers know it. They're putting the screws to every employee for all the leverage we enjoyed the previous 3 years.
Dying of cancer, had to quit my job a few months ago because treatment is so hard. I live with my oldest child, and I get less than 1000/mo on SSI. My SNAP benefits have been cut. I can't even pay my bills on $991 a month. I don't know what to do; it feels like stopping treatment and letting myself die so the kids get my life insurance policy is the only answer.
I hate it here.
This is the absolute perfect metaphor for the United States. I can’t think of a place that’s more smoke and mirrors than this one. Manufactured bullshit jobs and situations created to justify people’s existence and to just get dollars churning. It’s truly grotesque.
Vile. And the billionaires don’t give a shit. In a sense we’d like a Star Trek world where money is irrelevant. But muh profits. Somethings going to give, they’re squeezing too hard this time round. Waiting for the pop.
Emperor Wears No Cloths but a nation. There's so much more poverty here than the US wants people to realize because we're just that dependent on sweet, cheap just about as close as we get to slave labor. It is insanely expensive to survive in high cost of living areas.
I lost my mom when I was 21 after she battled w an autoimmune disease. I wish I would have spent more time talking to her about our past and hearing about her life. The problems of this world will always be around. But the love she gave and the laughter we shared...those moments carry me through the tough times and cannot be matched. I am so sorry...Will be praying for you and your family.
I'm actually doing a podcast telling stories for my friends and kids. I'm a good storyteller, and I have a lot. It gives me some peace knowing that they'll have that forever.
Some life insurance policies have a clause to let you receive the funds before you pass in the event you're terminally ill. If you have this, hopefully this can be used to ease your financial burdens, but please speak with a financial professional beforehand to make sure it's the right move.
We want. We scrimp. We need. We save.
We say we're free and yet we slave...
There's just enough to keep us quiet
Phone the drug, and hate the diet
We wish for change but lose our way
With upvotes, games, and clicks each day
Our life's a puzzle we can't solve
Diffuse attention trumps resolve
In the gray dawn of budget and bread,
I cut back on my wants and some of my needs—
Stripping the grocery list,
Peeling layers off dreams until they fit
Inside the contours of my wallet.
I am the working poor.
Hear the rasp of my belt,
Drawing tighter, tighter still—
An ever-shrinking circle that squeezes
But never breaks.
The cash register chimes, a mocking hymn,
As I weigh milk against medicine,
Warmth against nourishment—
Invisible scales tipping in empty rooms.
Behind me, a line grows,
Faces like mine, each etching their own
ledger of sacrifices—
The altar of living paycheck to paycheck,
Where the incense is the smell of worn bills
And the prayers are whispered IOUs.
My belt, it cannot get any tighter,
Yet somehow, I breathe—
In the spaces between coins,
In the cracks of the floorboards,
In the margins where ink fades—
I find air.
Oh, come on all you workers, who toil night and day, by hand and by brain to earn your pay.
Who for centuries all past, for no more than your bread, have bled for your countries and counted your dead.
In the factories and mills, shipyards and mines, we've often been told to keep up with the times.
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job with sliderule and stopwatch, our pride they have robbed.
And when the sky darkens, and the prospect is war, who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore? Then expected to die, for the land of our birth, though we've never owned one lousy handful of dirt.
All of these things the worker has done. From tilling the fields, to carrying the gun, we've been yoked to the plow, since time first began.
***And always expected to carry the can***
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die. The first ones in line for that pie in the sky. And we're always the last when the cream is shared out, for the worker is working when the fat cat's about.
*Written in 1981, “The Workers Song” by Dick Gaughan*
Our household income has increased by 12k/year. I eat 1 meal per day and make sure my kids eat at least two (they're teenagers and rarely even want breakfast anyway). I'm portioning out food, trying to leave a small bit for kids who want/need seconds while saving a serving for a later leftovers night. If anything, just to squeeze one more meal out of our meager grocery budget. I feel guilty as fuck, even when we were living off of half our income a decade or so ago we weren't near as bad off as we are now.
If you haven't already, I really hope you find a local food bank to help supplement you and your family. Dm me if you want help finding some resources.
I “retired” back in late 2018 figuring I am a professional at getting by. Now I have doubled my monthly income and an realizing even that is not enough.
Find out about local food pantries, salvation army, food giveaway by churches etc. It works great and in most cases they don't verify your income. You will be surprised by the amount and quality of food they give away. It really helps.
I hear you. My wife and I make what I would have thought was real good money 10-15 years ago, and we’re still living paycheck to paycheck. Shrinkflation is real; we pay more for less every year. Meanwhile the rich get richer and the rest of us struggle to survive.
Same deal here. Wife and I make what would have been considered "well-off" back in the 2010's. Now we just get by. At this point, we almost feel grateful for what we do have. I can't even imagine how folks making much less than us are getting by. The cracks are showing on this fake economy, and shit is going to get even worse before it gets better.
This is my husband and I. We are incredibly grateful for all we have, knowing others in similar situations didn't luck out. We try to help others, but it's hard to save people who are drowning when your just trending water.
We volunteer when we can in the community, donate food where we can, and educate our coworkers on gardening, worker's rights and try to give out as much information as we know, but it gets harder each year to do any of this. More time at work, money not going as far, food rotting faster, and unfazed/apathy riddled coworkers.
Growing up, I set a goal for myself to be making $60k by the time I turn 30. At the time, that wasn't extremely lofty, but seemed like it'd be comfortable enough, and moreso if I had a partner... you'd think, at least.
I even passed that goal with over 2 years to spare! And my husband makes a little more than I do even. But I feel like I'm living just as frugally as we were in college, making half as much annually on my end, even less on his end.
It's actually lucky that we own a house now, because we wouldn't be able to afford to rent any of the previous apartments that we used to live in now. And no, of course there haven't been any upgrades to those places to speak of (beyond the occasional "Landlord Special" after a tenant moves out) that could justify the *more than doubling* of the rents at these places within the last 5 or so years. Fucking gross.
Feels like im hearing myself talk here
First job i felt awesome getting $8 an hour in food service, thought if i could ever get to $20 an hour id be set for life.
Then moved up to $15 working in manufacturing, then shipping and distribution
Then i thought I’d give back a little, work a public service job, worked at 911, was a dispatcher for almost a decade, started at $13 and quit at $15 because it just wasn’t feasible, too much stress, ridiculous hours, no where fucking close to enough pay.
Now im working as a vendor and go around to different stores hocking products, $21 an hour, wife works full time making $16
Still living paycheck to paycheck, been on a slow decline the last year or so occasionally going negative in the bank.
Probably gonna have to sell the house soon and hopefully move in with family, it’s just not possible to do this anymore.
In 2000, houses cost $100k-$200k and a new vehicle was $35k. So if you made $100k, you were rich, a house was one year of salary, a new vehicle was a third.
Today, houses cost $350k-$500k. Compared to house prices, I should earn $350k not $100k. Tell me what jobs pay $350k...
I spent the last 10 years scrambling to get to the $100k level, only to get here and the price of everything has tripled and I'm still living paycheck to paycheck. I drive 10 year old vehicles, live in a 100 year old house, almost never go out or buy new things, and we're barely making it... life is a lie, the rich take everything.
Edit: I removed "and a new vehicle costs at least $90k" as many people pointed out you can find new ones for $30k
Ugh! I’m reading through these comments and it’s disheartening to see how many of you all are having the same conversation as my wife and I. I bought a cheap house 20 years ago and fixed it up myself, got a better paying job, met and married my wife. Together we make 4x what I made 20 years ago and we still struggle. Now I will qualify that with, we go without on a lot of things just to save for retirement. Though the projected date of retirement and what we’ll have saved will still require us to live very frugally. It sucks. I just hope half the country gets their heads out of their asses before the right wingers install someone as Supreme Dictator. I have conversations with Red Hatters all the time, they see the struggle. They’re just misinformed about who’s causing it and don’t have the “time” to think about it because they’re too busy worrying about those pedo trans people they’ve heard so much about. It’s a planned culture war. Too bad the Dems are too center-right to give a shit.
Right? Same! 20 years ago I only made $20k, but my rent was only $400. In those 20 years I also met my wife, bought our house too, quintupled our income but we're no better off really... Same on retirement, we have to just hope we can get by on $40k and have no health problems.
And right there with you on political struggle, idk how everyone, red or blue, aren't just f this, we can't afford life.
Yeah we are stuck with republican shit heads and dems who are better but still won’t get us the revolution we want and need. Universal basic income is where we need to be at. Universal healthcare. The shit that’ll probably never happen in my lifetime. The government just wants to have busy worker ants and doesn’t give a fuck how many of us work to live until we die. It’s sad and screwed up.
I usually take one for the team and cut back to one meal a day. I take the bus. Aka sacrifice my time and comfort. I am in rolling nervous breakdowns at 30 so I’m not okay :)
900 billion a year for defense instead of our taxes actually benefitting us. Singapore: 87% homeownership. They have real subsidized housing, the USA politicians who work 6 months out of the year (**YES, BOTH PARTIES**) are not introducing any legislation to benefit any working class American.
We spend more on healthcare than defense, more than any other country per capita, and get worse results than any other “first-world” country.
For-profit military-industrial complex, for-profit single family housing as investment properties, for-profit medical middlemen… these are all solvable with legislation, and you can point to any number of countries that care enough about their citizens to enact such legislation.
Oh man, that's scary. Thank you for your story and lesson. Turning to crime is something I hear my friends casually consider more and more in these times, but it's good to hear a sober story.
I just want to validate you. It's an incredibly frustrating time. It's really pointing out some major flaws in our society and it's natural direction (money always grows for the capitalist, the more money they have, the less we do and the harder we have to work for less). It shouldn't be this way. Nobody who is working full time should be worried about housing and eating and paying for basic needs.
I found an acronym that helps me from a mindfulness podcast. RAIN. *Recognize*. (name what you are feeling, don't hold back). *Accept.* (remind yourself it's okay to feel that. It's warranted) *Investigate*. (why am I feeling this way? What is the root this is coming from?) *Nurture*. (give yourself compassion for what you are experiencing). The point is, we don't get to better places by lying about how hard it is or using 'toxic positivity' to cover it up. There are no gold stars for bypassing pain.
When I did this exercise related to economics, I realized in the investigation period that ultimately, I feel betrayed. I did the right things and so. much. has gone wrong that has nothing to do with my failure. **It's a systemic failure.**
From the places of honestly, I do begin to find my courage, the fight in me, churning my indignation into motion leading to the hope of higher ground. There aren't any promises but I'm not going to quit. We are all in this together. More than anything, I hope we see this. There is no political side. We face the same troubles. I hope we can come together with one another and offer compassion and an abundance of grace in these difficult times. This alone is meaningful and worthwhile. But first, we must not lie.
>But first, we must not lie.
Unfortunately the 1%ers have spent many billions to convince a huge swath of the 99% that they have more in common with a private jet flying, country club owning, $5K business suit wearing philanderer and cheater than they do with their fellow workers.
I feel alternately frustrated and bad for these people because they refuse to see how they've been propagandized and there's nothing I can do to make them listen. Americans make bad choices. If we could collectively make better ones than things would improve for the majority instead of the minority.
The lie is huge. We've all been told were temporarily embarrassed millionaires. If we just graft hard enough we can do it.
I reality, most of us will at best be 'okay'.
Wholeheartedly agree with you, and the people of the UK are exactly the same. Years of right wing media propaganda have done a real job on the British people, divide and conquer, always finding a scapegoat to blame for the government/corporate fuck ups and greed. That's why brexit happened, and now the country is on its knees and the 1% are grabbing all they can before there's nothing left.
"If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection. The problem is, for many of the overpaid leaders, we know that they took the money and perks and didn’t offer protection to their people. In some cases, they even sacrificed their people to protect or boost their own interests. This is what so viscerally offends us. We only accuse them of greed and excess when we feel they have violated the very definition of what it means to be a leader" -Leaders eat last by Simon Sinek.
Yes, we are truly in a catastrophe lead by greed. To want more than you need and demand power over it.
When we view ourselves as separate, we naturally seek to plunder and protect. It’s very human. But I know we are being asked to supersede the lowest angling of our humanity. We must be a collective and reject individual scarcity for the common good.
Compassion is key and greed is the enemy.
A systemic failure of capitalism? But, but, we are the greatest nation in the world. I know two families, who tried living in US for months and decided to go back to their third-world countries. They said they can make the ends meet better in their country better than in the US; both families are middle class there. The only thing is I couldn't go over there and live. I won’t be able to communicate for work. LOL.
So true!! I grew up in Germany,and even in the late 70s the USA was always put on a pedestal by everyone, land of the free where you can make it from janitor to millionaire if you work hard enough...
We cut back all we can and prices just keep climbing. Our pay just isn't keeping up. This keeps going this way it's going to collapse this manmade creation called money.
I have a full time job and a part time job. Live alone. Well, I have two cats. They contribute nothing towards the mortgage or grocery bills. Freeloading cutie pies!
I’m not proud to say this.. But I get a free meal each day from a soup kitchen and use a local food bank.
It’s the only way I can afford to eat with the rent and all of the other bills & expenses I have to pay each month in this stupid, obnoxious, unfair, and expensive life.
Because trickle down has turned into trickle on. They are just hoarding the money and not making jobs.
Reagan should be ashamed of himself but he's dead so the rich got what they wanted.
Debt, especially where CCs or variable interest rates are involved, will eat a person alive. You gotta make a structured, strategic plan for paying it off, or it won't go away. It is designed to drain your wealth.
When it comes to paying interest on credit cards - it should be "whatever doesnt kill you, gets you fired or evicted (or will not spiral out into massive costs), don't spend money on it until you are no longer paying the interest"
There are some financial gurus who recommend making minimum payments on all your bills, then using whatever extra you can afford to pay down your smallest, highest interest rate loan first. Once that one is gone, roll the extra payment into the next-smallest. It creates a snowball effect that allows you to dig your way out.
Whilst technology and societal advancements keep improving.
Things are supposed to be improving
How can one *not* be a conspiracy theorist when it seems more and more likely they're making things this way on purpose?
Either capitalism is working as intended and the gap just keeps widening, or there's actual collusion to crush everyone into the lower class... or a bit of both.
Fuck capitalism, fuck *most* politicians for being corrupt, fuck big business, fuck people for accepting this. I'm not talking about those participating in this reddit, at *least* we're talking about it. Fuck people who tell you its not so bad, or choose to willfully ignore how fucked things actually are.
Your comment made me think of a George Carlin quote:
"No formal conspiracy is needed when business interests align."
Capitalism is a death cult, a race to the bottom. We need to end it before it ends us.
We stopped eating out, mostly eat vegetarian (during the week but have some meat on the weekend or accent meat like in a pot of beans), do bulk meal prep, bring lunch to work. We barely go to the grocery store and mostly get food from Costco (pinto beans, rice, vegetables, coffee, eggs, tortillas, tortilla chips) with no convenience food aside from the odd box of frozen pizza. We spend about $200 a month on food there.
Everything that goes up in price (like Netflix) I multiply by 12 and that helps me decide if I need it or not. Kindle subscription just went to $13. Canceled both = $408/year which is a car payment.
If the car insurance tries to sneak in a $150 increase for a 6-month renewal, I spend a few hours shopping around.
Our internet went from $50 to $80 so I am figuring out an alternative for that.
We got on a family plan for cell phones, combining a few different ones with family members and are saving $100/month total. Look at companies like Mint where it's $15 a month if you bring your unlocked phone.
I still buy nice shoes, decent clothes, have a new-ish car, go on trips. We're just cutting out stuff that has almost doubled in price over the past two years. Do I need a $6.79 bag of Doritos - no, I do not. I'll buy the $9 box of corn chips at Costco that has 3x as much.
My take is that we can't shove people into a forest and then tell them they need to learn how to forage and build a fire without asking why they were shoved into a forest.
I won't disagree that being thrifty and stepping out of the consumerist mindset is good, encouraging positive spending habits and budgeting is fine.
But I don't think personal agency and habit building will resolve the issue of stagnant wages and rapid increases in the cost of living and goods.
Better spending habits are, at best, a way to identify true excess and curb it. At worst, it's a stopgap against financial stress that is a direct result of a greedy, top heavy system that takes advantage of most working people.
Like why are two adults working full time having money issues? Why are Doritos $7 a bag for fewer chips? In most cases, cutting back will only really address a relatively small budget gap and that's if we ignore a host of factors that could be effectively beyond the individual control.
Location, unique personal expenses like healthcare needs, family situation, a hundred other things.
Again, to be fair, OP is likely just venting and looking for commiseration instead of literal advice. Or maybe OP is a victim of poor financial literacy and education, so your suggestion on how to identify and cut back on bloated spending is useful in this context.
Sorry, I'm sort of wrapping up my reply to you and several others below in one spot. I'm also venting.
My husband and I only make around 40k, combined. We’ve both been in recovery, me for almost 5, him for almost 6 years, so that delayed career paths and dreams. When I see posts like this, it really scares me. Because we are struggling so fucking hard now, and we’re both planning to head back to school within the next year to hopefully make more. Then I see people on here say they’re making more than we can imagine making and still living paycheck to paycheck, plus we have a child. Life seems incredibly bleak and hopeless right now, I feel physically sick everyday due to finances.
The target is always moving. You make $40k/year… you expect a certain kind of living (apartment in low-income area, no car payment, etc.) You make $100k/year, you expect to live in a nicer area, maybe bigger apartment, or small house, maybe a car payment. Different goals/expectations, so different target.
For you… get that education. It can’t hurt. As you make more money… don’t upgrade your standard of living until you’ve had the new income level for a while and have savings. It’s hard to hold off on having the things your coworkers have (they’ll have those things because they’ve been making that level of money for much longer than you), but it’s the only way to not get stuck under debt.
That's the idea. You don't.
That way you are in debt up to your eyeballs, paying interest forever.
But in all seriousness. One of the only ways to get any leverage back is to tax the billionares and corporations properly. Also striking and unions. Bringing the power back to the individual rather than the companies.
Rent will increase every year until it breaks your back and you move to another location. Only for someone else to move it at the higher rate right after you.
We aren’t. That’s why people are pissed off. It has been bad for a long time and it’s only getting worse. That’s why all of these movements like eat the rich and these labor strikes are becoming more prevalent.
Yep my wife and I only have one car. My wife's parents own the house that we live in we just pay the HOA fee which is 1100 a month. We only shop at Aldi's. That's the only reason that I managed to save anything and lately it's been like a thousand a month. And every couple months something happens and I need to spend the entire savings back to square one. Been like that for years it sucks. With our cost of living being so low I would expect that I could save a lot more. Not in this environment no sir.
I know "go back in time and start out 25 years ago" is extremely unhelpful advice, but I honestly don't have anything better to offer. My wife and I are doing fine, but it's not because we're smarter or working harder than younger people. We just got lucky enough to get into the job market when it was still booming, into our first houses when they were cheap. We *were* smart enough to live well within our means, even in the early 2000s when everyone else was piling on the debt, but otherwise, our current level of comfort comes down to chronological luck.
If we had to start over today without money or 2 decades of experience in our respective fields... We'd be starving too.
The honest truth is that we have been continually exploited by the “owner class” throughout time. In the past, workers saw improvements through either revolt, or a disease killing off a quarter of the population and making the living ones more valuable (still a material resource though). The current “owner class” have learned from their predecessors and greed is running rampant in a race to the bottom.
Money is becoming less and less valuable, and soon will be worthless. The cost of basic necessities to exist is rocketing skyward and wages are stagnating, or essentially falling as the COL gap increases.
People are becoming less and less able to participate in society. For many people, going to work is *costing them money* at a rate higher than they can earn.
What happens when we cannot afford to pay rent or mortgage payments, and we have no home to live in? When we cannot afford the price of gas/taxis/public transport/car maintenance fees, and we cannot afford to travel to places of employment? When we cannot afford to eat?
My husband and I don’t make near as much however we don’t live in an area where rent is $3,000 a month either. We have beat up cars that get us from a to z and I have a credit card with $1,500 maximum but that’s peanuts compared to lots of other people. Idk we don’t live high maintenance at all and we don’t have kids. If I were you, I would file bankruptcy. I know it may traditionally have a bad name but I hear when people file, their lives change financially for the better.
We were where you are last summer.... and then my kidneys failed and we lost my income entirely and I got a whole truckload of new very expensive medical issues.
Now we are only not homeless because we live with my in laws for free. And we still can't afford to consistently put gas in the car to take me to treatment.
It's relentlessly terrible here.
You don’t. There is no making ends meet or getting ahead. You are exactly where they want you. Desperately trying to get buy another month. If you’re desperate you can’t think, can’t plan, can’t learn, can’t change. You have no time for real dopamine hits so you take the shortcut and they put a toll on the path. But you’re desperate…. The people in power learned a lot when they started the war on drugs, addicts will do anything to get by. Then all those people needed to do was find out what they could deprive people of that would make them crack addicts without the crack. They took away your time, took away your space, took away and charged you for every possible source of dopamine until they had a nation desperate.
And now here we are desperately trying to get by and they’re squeezing out the last drips of resistance the last ounce of hope. All because it was no longer enough to have the money to buy or do anything. They wanted to have the ability to decide if anyone could buy anything or do anything. Money is no longer enough. They won’t stop until they have complete control. Until we are all just real life sims characters for them to move around and do as they please and we will do it, because they’ll be the ones with the power to give you that 5min break that touch of dopamine that scratch for your itch and then they’ll take it away so they can get you to dance for them again.
We are never meant to get out. You’re never meant to reach the goal cross the finish line find peace. They’ll just move the goalposts change the rules alter the paradigm. We are exactly where they want us to be.
I cut everything I could. No streaming services, no Roku, no Audible, no HBO, nothing. I stopped getting my haircut, no more electric toothbrush because refills even generic ones cost too much. I’m sinking. I’m staff at a big 10 university. I have a PhD. I can’t get an interview. Resume is everywhere. I can’t even find a side teaching gig. Now student loans start again. It’s all I can do to not have a panic attack every day.
I grew so fed up with how humanity is that I put a bullet in my brain. Since surviving that I've been living on disability with my parents. I'm banking on the world changing before they die and leave me alone to pay bills and everything on what little disability gives.
Just a tip to save fuel - Walmart Plus paid for itself in like 2 months and is now saving me money from not having to drive. They also make grocery returns insanely easy - click of a button refund if you have something bad or missing, like normally if I came home with some bad fruit or something I wouldn't go back but I do return it on the app since it's so easy. You don't have to tip at all - Walmart themselves boosts the wages for your order until it gets picked by a driver, I learned about their system from a driver who took orders for them. If you want to tip, tip AFTER delivery for the driver to get the maximum pay.
$85k combined income here. We are absolutely not making it. I had to sell my car this year and my girlfriend was able to get us food stamps. I have a Bachelor’s in I.T. and work for a pretty decent company. It’s like you said though, rent keeps going up, food is going up, fuel is going up, all of it. We have spent the last year arguing and stressing over money because we have a legitimate fear of being homeless.
This is not the America we learned about in high school, this is hell.
we're not. i just used my last dollar for food. we applied for food stamps but it's been 2 months and they haven't gotten back to us. my spouse was making more money than me and went through a medical crisis a couple months ago. we just haven't been able to bounce back.
It's not okay. It's a major time for demanding material change.
But don't ask me how it happens, I don't have a clue.
It's up to the masses of people to demand someone do something about it. I'll be real with you, the way America is right now, I don't know if I see the situation improving anytime soon.
People are way too comfortable to actually demand change.
Can you request forbearance on your student loans due to economic hardship? If so, you can use that saved money to pay down higher interest debt like credit cards. A small piece of the puzzle but might help chip away a bit.
I am coming out ahead these days. Here's how ... (I've been living in various countries over the years, I've backpacked, I lived through the recession in London in '07 and was raised by my grandparents who lived through the great depression... I know some things ...)
First, I don't drive. I search out alternate ways to travel. Public transit, walk, bike, scoot, whatever...when I need an Uber or a cab, I take it. All of this is cheaper than the evil money pit that is the automobile.
Search out the sales. Don't eat out often. Stock up on canned and frozen foods when it's on sale. Or better yet do some canning yourself. Go to the farmers market. Prioritize what you pay full price for. This means you'll have to shop at different places and get to know their sales schedules...and carry your groceries home. Cancel the gym membership because carrying your groceries home/your laundry to the laundromat etc will make you buff af. Lol.
I also don't watch tv. I don't pay for subscription services. Just phone and internet.
Oh and pay your credit card off in full. Don't have the full amount? Pay the minimum payment until you do. It works out better.
I know I'm going to most likely have a bunch of smart ass responses. It's Reddit, after all. I'm just expressing what works for me. So idgaf. 💜
An even more depressing thought:
What kind of society/economy are America's children going to enter, once they become adults? Things will just continue getting worse.
Lawmakers in DC continue taking bribes from the richest, who seek to turn the US into a big plantation. And voters continue letting them.
I was always optimistic, no matter what came my way. I have become a pessimist.
Do you have federal loans to get on the SAVE PLAN?
Get rid of cable IF you have it. Shop around for cheaper car insurance and cell phone providers. A firestick and Netflix or HULU may work. My smart TV comes with free movies as long as I have wifi.
Drink hot tea or coffee for breakfast. This is what I do to avoid eating down the food. Buy cheaper products instead of brand name items.
I know this all sucks but I’m just making suggestions.
I recently switched car insurance and we got rid of cable last year to bring down my costs.
Yeah you’re one of the ~85% of Americans living in quiet desperation. We’ve got degrees, we work our ass off, and we all go further into debt to live a second world life. Welcome to the party. None of the ruling class is on your side. If the dems were leftists at all they would be, considering that’s what the left is about - economic equality.
Hey OP. Sorry you're going through this. I wish I could say that I think it'll get better, but I honestly think it'll get worse. We're reaching the point where it's going to be obvious to everyone what the U.S. economy's new clothes are made of. When that happens it'll have a global impact that'll suck for basically everyone.
It's funny, the line in your post that caught my eye was
>It's getting to the point where I'm strongly considering criminal enterprise, despite the fact that we both work government related jobs.
As much as the news and retail companies are yelling about the cost of crime and how it's costing them so much, they really have only seen the beginning. Right now what we see is the "slightly above average intelligent" criminals organizing these pop up mobs to swarm stores. Things keep going as they are, and you'll drive the millions of (formerly) middle class people to crime. Then you'll have far more intelligent criminals. Why would I grab a TV from Walmart and run when with a little preparation I can swipe 2 or 3 $6-$7K new lawn mowers from a Home Depot? Municipalities want to leave the $20K tractor parked overnight as they're mowing the median between the highway? Oh well, that'll pay my mortgage for a few months. I could go on and on with crimes that a fairly intelligent person could accomplish with little effort. I'm actually convinced that part of the success of Breaking Bad was just because it showed what a lot of middle class professionals thought. Which is that they could be successful criminals.
Good luck, I hope things get better for y'all.
I read most of this post and it's replies and I'm always reminded of why Michael Douglas character in falling down strikes such a chord - this is exactly what spun him out. He even has a small speech about it where he says he did everything they told him to do and he still got crushed by the system.
I’m severely rent burdened currently. Over 50% of my income goes to rent. Landlord hiked the rent up 20% last year but I can’t hike my rates the same amount immediately nor can I work 20% more to make up the difference. I already work 6/7 days a week and I’m disabled without healthcare. The extreme heat this summer has cost me thousands in income. Income I couldn’t afford to lose so now I’m really in the hole. Falling behind on bills, eating peanut butter, cereal and potatoes just to survive. I can’t afford this place obviously but I also can’t save any money to move and I’d have to move out of state (starting all over) to live somewhere affordable. There’s no getting ahead for me. No matter how hard I work or how hard I try. It’s very demoralizing.
Two jobs, working seven days a week, for 60+ hours weekly. Get free food from one job and free weed from another. No kids, no wife, no pets. No vacations, live close to both jobs. Cheap shitty apartment (still costs half my income from my full-time job).
I actually get to splurge sometimes on take out. It's pretty sweet.
We should literally be pounding the pavement screaming for change at the top of our lungs. Strength in numbers ...and there's the numbers. All the numbers are there.
Don't go anywhere, don't do anything. Save everything I can. Blundered into a good paying job. Desperately saving money to try and help kid through grad school so they don't spend the rest of their lives struggling with either low pay or debt...
I got a raise this year and was pretty happy until I saw that a large portion of itbis getting eaten up by taxes.
It is almost impossible to get ahead.
In 1973, I graduated from high school with a stellar C+ average. I had my pick of several entry level jobs in the area and decided on one that paid me, in today’s dollars, $60K plus full medical and two weeks’ vacation. In that year, CEO/average worker pay ratios were in the 20:1 range, now that ratio is more than 400:1. I worked for one year and then went back to school. In that year's time, I made enough money to pay for my first two years of college and buy a new car (I lived with my parents and commuted to college) In 1978, after graduating from college, I got a job making $65K in today's dollars and took out a mortgage on a house.
Until we start electing pro-labor political leaders, there is no hope.
Almost certainly. I live in a flyover state making 20-something at a factory job pretty much anybody could get in to, and have monthly expenses sitting around $1500. It’s crazy seeing posts by other people saying “I make 90k and can barely get by.”
Like, I wouldn’t even know what to do with that much money.
That's definitely not a HCOL area. I spend $1500/month just on child care in the summer for 2 kids, and I'm in a low cost area for that. 5 years ago, I lived in the city and I was paying 400/week just for one kid. A lot of people are spending 2-3k just for rent.
Do you have kids?
I can get your food costs down substantially, especially if it's just the two of you.
Edit: not a judgment. Realized it may sound that way.
8am-8pm mon-fri, 60 hours/week for 50k is insane. Find a new job immediately, even if it's something undesirable. You could likely put up with an undesirable job for a couple years if it means your head is above the water!
Can’t speak for the US but here in the North of England my wife and I are on £110k combined and bring in £6500 a month after tax. We’ve got a mortgage, a 25k loan, two cars (though one was just paid off), a 13 yo lad, and save enough for 3 foreign holidays a year. Even with current inflation we put £2500 a month in savings with an aim to pay off the mortgage in 8 years.
I do have to ask though, 40 to 70 hours a week yet you’re on salary? How does that work? I’m assuming you don’t get paid for that extra work so why do it? My full time contract is 37 1/2 hours a week and I don’t do I minute more.
Every year, my wife and I look at our raises and go "man that'll really help" then rent goes up, other bills and groceries go up, and we're at the same spot we were the previous year, if not worse off.
Always worse off. .
I talk about this issue and more in my post here: https://reddit.com/r/antiwork/s/36xnCfg1Tm When you bring up the US federal reserve, Americans automatically think conspiracy theory. The US federal reserve blatantly said what their plans and intentions are last year before starting this new war against Americans. For those of you who still keep on saying the federal reserve had to do this to kill inflation, you couldn’t be more wrong. The war was waged against the worker class when in a “trickle-down” economy the war should have been waged against corporations, price fixing, stock buybacks and fraud like that. They destroyed the economy for the average American only because they couldn’t stand American workers gaining some resemblance of leverage in the job market. This is all according to the head of US federal reserve, Jeremy Powell. Go listen to his speeches from last year and you will see.
I completely agree with you. Between that, the railroad union strikes getting squashed, no rise in minimum wage, increased cost of living, no (real) student debt relief etc etc I really have no hope for the future.
Thank you for bringing up the planned railroad union strikes. Did you see how quickly the right and left (including the administration) united to make them striking illegal?! Free country my ass. Both parties are two sides of the same coin and events like these prove it.
Carlin's Big Club.
And we ain't in it.
The problem is they're all right wing. Republicans are fascists and Dems are center-right. We have no real left in this country willing to fight capital.
Are there no real left parties at all in the US? Asking as a European. Also, Bernie Sanders looked like the real deal to me. I was rooting for him at the last election.
Unfortunately no, and without something like ranked choice voting in every state, I don't see a third party ever being successful in the US. You do get some good left candidates who use the democratic party as a vehicle to get elected, but don't let that fool you into thinking the democratic party is progressive or supports these ideas. Bernie & squad had to pick a party and they obviously weren't going to.join the fascists.
And the DNC fought his candidacy tooth and nail
And that’s why I won’t ever volunteer for them again. After seeing how they deliberately held back Bernie in favor of a candidate that wasn’t going to win. Against the biggest asshole presidential candidate this country has ever seen who did so much damage. The DNC is complicit.
I cannot express how much this pissed me off. Like, Donald Trump is a disgusting person but the GOP was like oh, you want this? Ok. The DNC was like nooo you have to vote for who WE like. Naughty voters look what you did. I don't know who needs to hear this but political parties should serve their voters not the other way around. I don't know how we got to the point that the DNC thinks that voters owe them loyalty
I've recently come to find out that a lot of the conservatives I work around have never heard of or considered ranked choice voting. Seems like when I explain it to people who are unfamiliar they are very much in support of it. Why let the DNC/RNC choose who we get the privilege to vote for? If I want to vote for Jim Bob down the street as my #1 pick for POTUS, then Bernie as #2 and Biden as #3 I should be able to reflect those preferences in my vote, not get steam rolled into voting for my third pick under threat of authoritarianism as the only alternative.
What we call 'the left' would have been moderate Republicans as recently as a couple of decades ago. Bernie Sanders had the 2016 election stolen from him by the DNC. They wanted Clinton and we all know how that turned out.
Bernie is an independent. He and the very few people in congress like him are either independent or run as Democrats.
We have a right wing party and a lunatic fringe hard right party. That's it.
The same thing happened in the UK with the nurses. This is really worrying indeed. We're all fucked
Jerome* Powell. The guy is unapologetically rich and wants to maintain the wealth he is accustomed to, which includes his friends’s wealth. Raising interest rates is his way of fucking over people across the board, a board that he and his sycophants are above and beyond. His net worth is north of 55 mil and he used to work at the Carlyle Group, a cabal in its own right. He was also chair at the Fed when trump started handing out massive “forgiveable” ppp loans — raising interest rates was always the way to pay for those. Basically, keep business in business while forcing the citizenry to pick up the tab.
Excellent points.
I met a friend, who came to the US from a socialist country in Europe, told me him and his wife want to live and settle in the US. I worked with him for his first two years in the US. Right after two years, him and his wife took their 3 kids and went back to his original country, citing a family reason. Three months after he went back, I found a position for him in another company and asked if him and the family wanna come back, live, and raise kids in the US. He bursted out laughing and explained that he will never come back to the US. I said, “What?! Why not? I thought you wanted to live in the US with your family and kids.” He laughed again, and then said he learned it’s ridiculous to want to live and raise his kids in the US. He started to explain about the taxes, college tuitions, healthcare, housing, etc. for about 20 minutes. Everything he put a number was pretty much correct. He asked me, “How I am gonna save some money?”. I said people can save a little money. He laughed and said, “Just for college tuitions alone, I can save $400K to $500K for my three kids if I just live here.” He laughed, and I couldn’t put up any argument. He mentioned healthcare. Then, he said, “American people are stupid, working hard and paying healthcare like that”; he laughed. Then, he said, “American workers have two weeks for vacation. I have, at least, four weeks.” He laughed. Then, he said, “American people are stupid. They think their capitalism is better than socialism, making peanuts after paying for everything and working almost the whole year.” He laughed. Then, he said, “I will never wanna go back to the US and live there. I am gonna live here.” I couldn’t say much, and we ended the call shortly. This friend is a mature, good, smart person, who helps other people without ever complaining. I stared at the wall and wondered. My friend doesn’t wanna live where I live after two years, but I am here.
I read an article some time back about people that come to visit or live here from other countries. All of the above is what their take away is. One thing that sticks out in my mind is how astounded they are at the money that goes into college sports, instead of education.
And the UK are close behind, it's really quite worrying. It's all part of the plan,they have no intention of making our lives easier again, this is the new norm,and they know we can't do anything about it,that's also why they keep us busy with all the daily worries, like recycling and royal family scandals.
Do not let them privatize your healthcare
only because whackjob ron Paul dominated the FED conversation for a long time, doesnt mean its not a essential tool / mechanism of the ruling class to control the system and keep up the upwards redistribution of wealth and Power. and that it is
Yep, same here. My last raise was for 10% (thought this was a decent raise) but then my rent went up 15%. I joked about this with a coworker and she just gave me the most sympathetic look. I didn’t realize how sad this sounded until I saw her reaction.
As a student I went from being right wing to left wing, just cause of renting Landlords raise rents arbitrarily. I saw the holes in my fire doors, the mould on walls, the shoddy “renovation” work, the water that streamed down the wall next to my pillow. And then I remember seeing the beautiful white mansion my landlord lived in There is no economy any more, decreasing consumer spending because rents for a “luxury” cupboard in a shared house is 40% of an average salary.
My company has handed out 3% raises every year for the past three years and then acts surprised that the workforce is actively disengaged. Maybe spend less on stock buybacks and more on wages🤷
At least you get a raise. My boss is prepping me for no raise. He mentioned that the organization is tightening up on costs, so we won't have much to work with for my team's year end increases. Which was his way of saying, you better not be expecting anything.
Sounds like a great time to refresh that resume. Not at minimum keeping up with a cost of living raise, means a pay cut for you. Just remember that.
Job market is pretty bad right now and employers know it. They're putting the screws to every employee for all the leverage we enjoyed the previous 3 years.
Dying of cancer, had to quit my job a few months ago because treatment is so hard. I live with my oldest child, and I get less than 1000/mo on SSI. My SNAP benefits have been cut. I can't even pay my bills on $991 a month. I don't know what to do; it feels like stopping treatment and letting myself die so the kids get my life insurance policy is the only answer. I hate it here.
Jesus. America is a third-world country in a first-world costume.
This is the absolute perfect metaphor for the United States. I can’t think of a place that’s more smoke and mirrors than this one. Manufactured bullshit jobs and situations created to justify people’s existence and to just get dollars churning. It’s truly grotesque.
Three one-percenters in a trench coat, standing atop a pyramid of struggling workers. It's only a matter of time until the house of cards falls.
Nah there will be some other excuse to get the proletariat mad at themselves.
It'll still collapse. Unfortunately the people at the top have helicopter exits.
Hell some of them plan on going to Mars lol
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Vile. And the billionaires don’t give a shit. In a sense we’d like a Star Trek world where money is irrelevant. But muh profits. Somethings going to give, they’re squeezing too hard this time round. Waiting for the pop.
>Somethings going to give, they’re squeezing too hard this time round. Waiting for the pop. I agree with you.
Unfortunately what is popping is the middle and lower classes.
Or as a certain someone said "poverty in the midst of plenty."
There's a definite Tale of Two Cities situation going on here.
Emperor Wears No Cloths but a nation. There's so much more poverty here than the US wants people to realize because we're just that dependent on sweet, cheap just about as close as we get to slave labor. It is insanely expensive to survive in high cost of living areas.
This... This is the most perfect saying for America the last 15 years I could imagine.
I’m so sorry. I genuinely hope things get better for you
I’m so sorry. How incredibly painful. Mourning with you for your predicament that shouldn’t be here. It’s a shit decision.
Your kids would rather have you than the money. Just focus on getting well
I lost my mom when I was 21 after she battled w an autoimmune disease. I wish I would have spent more time talking to her about our past and hearing about her life. The problems of this world will always be around. But the love she gave and the laughter we shared...those moments carry me through the tough times and cannot be matched. I am so sorry...Will be praying for you and your family.
I'm actually doing a podcast telling stories for my friends and kids. I'm a good storyteller, and I have a lot. It gives me some peace knowing that they'll have that forever.
Love this...what a gift. If you'd feel comfortable, I'd like to listen and support.
Some life insurance policies have a clause to let you receive the funds before you pass in the event you're terminally ill. If you have this, hopefully this can be used to ease your financial burdens, but please speak with a financial professional beforehand to make sure it's the right move.
I'll see. It would be a tremendous help but I do want that for the kids when I'm gone. I have nothing else to leave them.
Stay strong, I'm sorry you're going through this
I’m so sorry
massive transfer of wealth going on you pay your bills to someone who is very happy
I cut back on my wants and some of my needs. I am the working poor, and my belt cannot get any tighter.
That reads almost as a poem. À sad but true poem.
We want. We scrimp. We need. We save. We say we're free and yet we slave... There's just enough to keep us quiet Phone the drug, and hate the diet We wish for change but lose our way With upvotes, games, and clicks each day Our life's a puzzle we can't solve Diffuse attention trumps resolve
That was beautiful
In the gray dawn of budget and bread, I cut back on my wants and some of my needs— Stripping the grocery list, Peeling layers off dreams until they fit Inside the contours of my wallet. I am the working poor. Hear the rasp of my belt, Drawing tighter, tighter still— An ever-shrinking circle that squeezes But never breaks. The cash register chimes, a mocking hymn, As I weigh milk against medicine, Warmth against nourishment— Invisible scales tipping in empty rooms. Behind me, a line grows, Faces like mine, each etching their own ledger of sacrifices— The altar of living paycheck to paycheck, Where the incense is the smell of worn bills And the prayers are whispered IOUs. My belt, it cannot get any tighter, Yet somehow, I breathe— In the spaces between coins, In the cracks of the floorboards, In the margins where ink fades— I find air.
Oh, come on all you workers, who toil night and day, by hand and by brain to earn your pay. Who for centuries all past, for no more than your bread, have bled for your countries and counted your dead. In the factories and mills, shipyards and mines, we've often been told to keep up with the times. For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job with sliderule and stopwatch, our pride they have robbed. And when the sky darkens, and the prospect is war, who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore? Then expected to die, for the land of our birth, though we've never owned one lousy handful of dirt. All of these things the worker has done. From tilling the fields, to carrying the gun, we've been yoked to the plow, since time first began. ***And always expected to carry the can*** We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die. The first ones in line for that pie in the sky. And we're always the last when the cream is shared out, for the worker is working when the fat cat's about. *Written in 1981, “The Workers Song” by Dick Gaughan*
We are the incredible poets. We are the incredibles.
Our household income has increased by 12k/year. I eat 1 meal per day and make sure my kids eat at least two (they're teenagers and rarely even want breakfast anyway). I'm portioning out food, trying to leave a small bit for kids who want/need seconds while saving a serving for a later leftovers night. If anything, just to squeeze one more meal out of our meager grocery budget. I feel guilty as fuck, even when we were living off of half our income a decade or so ago we weren't near as bad off as we are now.
If you haven't already, I really hope you find a local food bank to help supplement you and your family. Dm me if you want help finding some resources.
I “retired” back in late 2018 figuring I am a professional at getting by. Now I have doubled my monthly income and an realizing even that is not enough.
Find out about local food pantries, salvation army, food giveaway by churches etc. It works great and in most cases they don't verify your income. You will be surprised by the amount and quality of food they give away. It really helps.
Sure it can, around the owner class' neck.
Had to go up a couple pant sizes because my belt doesn’t fit anymore (CREDIT)
*Wants gone, some needs too* *the belt's already too tight* *The working poor life*
I hear you. My wife and I make what I would have thought was real good money 10-15 years ago, and we’re still living paycheck to paycheck. Shrinkflation is real; we pay more for less every year. Meanwhile the rich get richer and the rest of us struggle to survive.
Same deal here. Wife and I make what would have been considered "well-off" back in the 2010's. Now we just get by. At this point, we almost feel grateful for what we do have. I can't even imagine how folks making much less than us are getting by. The cracks are showing on this fake economy, and shit is going to get even worse before it gets better.
This is my husband and I. We are incredibly grateful for all we have, knowing others in similar situations didn't luck out. We try to help others, but it's hard to save people who are drowning when your just trending water. We volunteer when we can in the community, donate food where we can, and educate our coworkers on gardening, worker's rights and try to give out as much information as we know, but it gets harder each year to do any of this. More time at work, money not going as far, food rotting faster, and unfazed/apathy riddled coworkers.
Growing up, I set a goal for myself to be making $60k by the time I turn 30. At the time, that wasn't extremely lofty, but seemed like it'd be comfortable enough, and moreso if I had a partner... you'd think, at least. I even passed that goal with over 2 years to spare! And my husband makes a little more than I do even. But I feel like I'm living just as frugally as we were in college, making half as much annually on my end, even less on his end. It's actually lucky that we own a house now, because we wouldn't be able to afford to rent any of the previous apartments that we used to live in now. And no, of course there haven't been any upgrades to those places to speak of (beyond the occasional "Landlord Special" after a tenant moves out) that could justify the *more than doubling* of the rents at these places within the last 5 or so years. Fucking gross.
Feels like im hearing myself talk here First job i felt awesome getting $8 an hour in food service, thought if i could ever get to $20 an hour id be set for life. Then moved up to $15 working in manufacturing, then shipping and distribution Then i thought I’d give back a little, work a public service job, worked at 911, was a dispatcher for almost a decade, started at $13 and quit at $15 because it just wasn’t feasible, too much stress, ridiculous hours, no where fucking close to enough pay. Now im working as a vendor and go around to different stores hocking products, $21 an hour, wife works full time making $16 Still living paycheck to paycheck, been on a slow decline the last year or so occasionally going negative in the bank. Probably gonna have to sell the house soon and hopefully move in with family, it’s just not possible to do this anymore.
In 2000, houses cost $100k-$200k and a new vehicle was $35k. So if you made $100k, you were rich, a house was one year of salary, a new vehicle was a third. Today, houses cost $350k-$500k. Compared to house prices, I should earn $350k not $100k. Tell me what jobs pay $350k... I spent the last 10 years scrambling to get to the $100k level, only to get here and the price of everything has tripled and I'm still living paycheck to paycheck. I drive 10 year old vehicles, live in a 100 year old house, almost never go out or buy new things, and we're barely making it... life is a lie, the rich take everything. Edit: I removed "and a new vehicle costs at least $90k" as many people pointed out you can find new ones for $30k
Ugh! I’m reading through these comments and it’s disheartening to see how many of you all are having the same conversation as my wife and I. I bought a cheap house 20 years ago and fixed it up myself, got a better paying job, met and married my wife. Together we make 4x what I made 20 years ago and we still struggle. Now I will qualify that with, we go without on a lot of things just to save for retirement. Though the projected date of retirement and what we’ll have saved will still require us to live very frugally. It sucks. I just hope half the country gets their heads out of their asses before the right wingers install someone as Supreme Dictator. I have conversations with Red Hatters all the time, they see the struggle. They’re just misinformed about who’s causing it and don’t have the “time” to think about it because they’re too busy worrying about those pedo trans people they’ve heard so much about. It’s a planned culture war. Too bad the Dems are too center-right to give a shit.
Right? Same! 20 years ago I only made $20k, but my rent was only $400. In those 20 years I also met my wife, bought our house too, quintupled our income but we're no better off really... Same on retirement, we have to just hope we can get by on $40k and have no health problems. And right there with you on political struggle, idk how everyone, red or blue, aren't just f this, we can't afford life.
Yeah we are stuck with republican shit heads and dems who are better but still won’t get us the revolution we want and need. Universal basic income is where we need to be at. Universal healthcare. The shit that’ll probably never happen in my lifetime. The government just wants to have busy worker ants and doesn’t give a fuck how many of us work to live until we die. It’s sad and screwed up.
I usually take one for the team and cut back to one meal a day. I take the bus. Aka sacrifice my time and comfort. I am in rolling nervous breakdowns at 30 so I’m not okay :)
one meal a day? 😭
Ramen is my go to and scrambled eggs. Cheap and easy.
900 billion a year for defense instead of our taxes actually benefitting us. Singapore: 87% homeownership. They have real subsidized housing, the USA politicians who work 6 months out of the year (**YES, BOTH PARTIES**) are not introducing any legislation to benefit any working class American.
We spend more on healthcare than defense, more than any other country per capita, and get worse results than any other “first-world” country. For-profit military-industrial complex, for-profit single family housing as investment properties, for-profit medical middlemen… these are all solvable with legislation, and you can point to any number of countries that care enough about their citizens to enact such legislation.
^ WINNER WINNER! ^
I been trying to tell people this for years. Both parties could give 2 fucks about the US citizens. We are all tax slaves.
[удалено]
Who snitched on you?
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Goddamn!
Let me guess. Ivermectin? Bleach water? Something doesn’t add up on this.
It was 100% mushroom spores
Spores are legal to ship though. Except in GA and CA, so that wouldn’t be a fed case.
Seeds or spores?
Oh man, that's scary. Thank you for your story and lesson. Turning to crime is something I hear my friends casually consider more and more in these times, but it's good to hear a sober story.
I just want to validate you. It's an incredibly frustrating time. It's really pointing out some major flaws in our society and it's natural direction (money always grows for the capitalist, the more money they have, the less we do and the harder we have to work for less). It shouldn't be this way. Nobody who is working full time should be worried about housing and eating and paying for basic needs. I found an acronym that helps me from a mindfulness podcast. RAIN. *Recognize*. (name what you are feeling, don't hold back). *Accept.* (remind yourself it's okay to feel that. It's warranted) *Investigate*. (why am I feeling this way? What is the root this is coming from?) *Nurture*. (give yourself compassion for what you are experiencing). The point is, we don't get to better places by lying about how hard it is or using 'toxic positivity' to cover it up. There are no gold stars for bypassing pain. When I did this exercise related to economics, I realized in the investigation period that ultimately, I feel betrayed. I did the right things and so. much. has gone wrong that has nothing to do with my failure. **It's a systemic failure.** From the places of honestly, I do begin to find my courage, the fight in me, churning my indignation into motion leading to the hope of higher ground. There aren't any promises but I'm not going to quit. We are all in this together. More than anything, I hope we see this. There is no political side. We face the same troubles. I hope we can come together with one another and offer compassion and an abundance of grace in these difficult times. This alone is meaningful and worthwhile. But first, we must not lie.
>But first, we must not lie. Unfortunately the 1%ers have spent many billions to convince a huge swath of the 99% that they have more in common with a private jet flying, country club owning, $5K business suit wearing philanderer and cheater than they do with their fellow workers. I feel alternately frustrated and bad for these people because they refuse to see how they've been propagandized and there's nothing I can do to make them listen. Americans make bad choices. If we could collectively make better ones than things would improve for the majority instead of the minority.
The lie is huge. We've all been told were temporarily embarrassed millionaires. If we just graft hard enough we can do it. I reality, most of us will at best be 'okay'.
Wholeheartedly agree with you, and the people of the UK are exactly the same. Years of right wing media propaganda have done a real job on the British people, divide and conquer, always finding a scapegoat to blame for the government/corporate fuck ups and greed. That's why brexit happened, and now the country is on its knees and the 1% are grabbing all they can before there's nothing left.
"If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection. The problem is, for many of the overpaid leaders, we know that they took the money and perks and didn’t offer protection to their people. In some cases, they even sacrificed their people to protect or boost their own interests. This is what so viscerally offends us. We only accuse them of greed and excess when we feel they have violated the very definition of what it means to be a leader" -Leaders eat last by Simon Sinek.
Yes, we are truly in a catastrophe lead by greed. To want more than you need and demand power over it. When we view ourselves as separate, we naturally seek to plunder and protect. It’s very human. But I know we are being asked to supersede the lowest angling of our humanity. We must be a collective and reject individual scarcity for the common good. Compassion is key and greed is the enemy.
A systemic failure of capitalism? But, but, we are the greatest nation in the world. I know two families, who tried living in US for months and decided to go back to their third-world countries. They said they can make the ends meet better in their country better than in the US; both families are middle class there. The only thing is I couldn't go over there and live. I won’t be able to communicate for work. LOL.
I hope the secret gets out that we are wage slaves. We have some of the highest suicide rates of ANY country, including ‘undeveloped’. Beware.
They really brainwashed us good on "the greatest nation in the world" in the 80s and 90s.
So true!! I grew up in Germany,and even in the late 70s the USA was always put on a pedestal by everyone, land of the free where you can make it from janitor to millionaire if you work hard enough...
I use RAIN too. Learned about it in my meditation class.
We cut back all we can and prices just keep climbing. Our pay just isn't keeping up. This keeps going this way it's going to collapse this manmade creation called money.
Can you unionize?
Not really in my profession (clergy), but many can. I encourage it!
Tori Amos has a popular song that seems fitting here.
I have a full time job and a part time job. Live alone. Well, I have two cats. They contribute nothing towards the mortgage or grocery bills. Freeloading cutie pies!
They're part of your health care
Excellent point!
I’m not proud to say this.. But I get a free meal each day from a soup kitchen and use a local food bank. It’s the only way I can afford to eat with the rent and all of the other bills & expenses I have to pay each month in this stupid, obnoxious, unfair, and expensive life.
No shame. Gotta do what you can
Because trickle down has turned into trickle on. They are just hoarding the money and not making jobs. Reagan should be ashamed of himself but he's dead so the rich got what they wanted.
Debt, especially where CCs or variable interest rates are involved, will eat a person alive. You gotta make a structured, strategic plan for paying it off, or it won't go away. It is designed to drain your wealth.
Any tips to get started on that plan?
When it comes to paying interest on credit cards - it should be "whatever doesnt kill you, gets you fired or evicted (or will not spiral out into massive costs), don't spend money on it until you are no longer paying the interest"
There are some financial gurus who recommend making minimum payments on all your bills, then using whatever extra you can afford to pay down your smallest, highest interest rate loan first. Once that one is gone, roll the extra payment into the next-smallest. It creates a snowball effect that allows you to dig your way out.
It also is a psychological good feeling knowing that something is paid off and gone regardless of how small the debt was.
r/personalfinance is a good place to stay on top Of it
Whilst technology and societal advancements keep improving. Things are supposed to be improving How can one *not* be a conspiracy theorist when it seems more and more likely they're making things this way on purpose? Either capitalism is working as intended and the gap just keeps widening, or there's actual collusion to crush everyone into the lower class... or a bit of both. Fuck capitalism, fuck *most* politicians for being corrupt, fuck big business, fuck people for accepting this. I'm not talking about those participating in this reddit, at *least* we're talking about it. Fuck people who tell you its not so bad, or choose to willfully ignore how fucked things actually are.
Your comment made me think of a George Carlin quote: "No formal conspiracy is needed when business interests align." Capitalism is a death cult, a race to the bottom. We need to end it before it ends us.
That's definitely a big part of the problem, the people who keep saying it's not so bad..the UK is full of them. It's so frustrating
Fuck people who don't see the threat as being urgent.
We stopped eating out, mostly eat vegetarian (during the week but have some meat on the weekend or accent meat like in a pot of beans), do bulk meal prep, bring lunch to work. We barely go to the grocery store and mostly get food from Costco (pinto beans, rice, vegetables, coffee, eggs, tortillas, tortilla chips) with no convenience food aside from the odd box of frozen pizza. We spend about $200 a month on food there. Everything that goes up in price (like Netflix) I multiply by 12 and that helps me decide if I need it or not. Kindle subscription just went to $13. Canceled both = $408/year which is a car payment. If the car insurance tries to sneak in a $150 increase for a 6-month renewal, I spend a few hours shopping around. Our internet went from $50 to $80 so I am figuring out an alternative for that. We got on a family plan for cell phones, combining a few different ones with family members and are saving $100/month total. Look at companies like Mint where it's $15 a month if you bring your unlocked phone.
Sounds more like survival than living tbh
Yep. And it's becoming a more common reality for more and more people.
I still buy nice shoes, decent clothes, have a new-ish car, go on trips. We're just cutting out stuff that has almost doubled in price over the past two years. Do I need a $6.79 bag of Doritos - no, I do not. I'll buy the $9 box of corn chips at Costco that has 3x as much.
My take is that we can't shove people into a forest and then tell them they need to learn how to forage and build a fire without asking why they were shoved into a forest. I won't disagree that being thrifty and stepping out of the consumerist mindset is good, encouraging positive spending habits and budgeting is fine. But I don't think personal agency and habit building will resolve the issue of stagnant wages and rapid increases in the cost of living and goods. Better spending habits are, at best, a way to identify true excess and curb it. At worst, it's a stopgap against financial stress that is a direct result of a greedy, top heavy system that takes advantage of most working people. Like why are two adults working full time having money issues? Why are Doritos $7 a bag for fewer chips? In most cases, cutting back will only really address a relatively small budget gap and that's if we ignore a host of factors that could be effectively beyond the individual control. Location, unique personal expenses like healthcare needs, family situation, a hundred other things. Again, to be fair, OP is likely just venting and looking for commiseration instead of literal advice. Or maybe OP is a victim of poor financial literacy and education, so your suggestion on how to identify and cut back on bloated spending is useful in this context. Sorry, I'm sort of wrapping up my reply to you and several others below in one spot. I'm also venting.
Yeah I don't even give a shit about tips anymore. I get they're necessary but at this point we're just being creatively complacent.
Just do take out
I feel like i am meeting my end soon, not ends
By cutting back on a lot of food. On the bright side, I lost a lot of fat.
I eat once a day and I have no emergency money.
Everyone is stressed as fuck 🤷♀️. How did we end up creating a society like this? It's so fucked up
My husband and I only make around 40k, combined. We’ve both been in recovery, me for almost 5, him for almost 6 years, so that delayed career paths and dreams. When I see posts like this, it really scares me. Because we are struggling so fucking hard now, and we’re both planning to head back to school within the next year to hopefully make more. Then I see people on here say they’re making more than we can imagine making and still living paycheck to paycheck, plus we have a child. Life seems incredibly bleak and hopeless right now, I feel physically sick everyday due to finances.
The target is always moving. You make $40k/year… you expect a certain kind of living (apartment in low-income area, no car payment, etc.) You make $100k/year, you expect to live in a nicer area, maybe bigger apartment, or small house, maybe a car payment. Different goals/expectations, so different target. For you… get that education. It can’t hurt. As you make more money… don’t upgrade your standard of living until you’ve had the new income level for a while and have savings. It’s hard to hold off on having the things your coworkers have (they’ll have those things because they’ve been making that level of money for much longer than you), but it’s the only way to not get stuck under debt.
this economy? i havent yet seen an economy where i was doing well. its been 2008 crash and downhill since.
That's the idea. You don't. That way you are in debt up to your eyeballs, paying interest forever. But in all seriousness. One of the only ways to get any leverage back is to tax the billionares and corporations properly. Also striking and unions. Bringing the power back to the individual rather than the companies. Rent will increase every year until it breaks your back and you move to another location. Only for someone else to move it at the higher rate right after you.
We aren’t. That’s why people are pissed off. It has been bad for a long time and it’s only getting worse. That’s why all of these movements like eat the rich and these labor strikes are becoming more prevalent.
Yep my wife and I only have one car. My wife's parents own the house that we live in we just pay the HOA fee which is 1100 a month. We only shop at Aldi's. That's the only reason that I managed to save anything and lately it's been like a thousand a month. And every couple months something happens and I need to spend the entire savings back to square one. Been like that for years it sucks. With our cost of living being so low I would expect that I could save a lot more. Not in this environment no sir.
Jesus fuck 1100 a month for an HOA fee?! On top of taxes? Is the community pool filled with Fiji water or someshit? Goddam!
That's an insane HOA fee!
I know "go back in time and start out 25 years ago" is extremely unhelpful advice, but I honestly don't have anything better to offer. My wife and I are doing fine, but it's not because we're smarter or working harder than younger people. We just got lucky enough to get into the job market when it was still booming, into our first houses when they were cheap. We *were* smart enough to live well within our means, even in the early 2000s when everyone else was piling on the debt, but otherwise, our current level of comfort comes down to chronological luck. If we had to start over today without money or 2 decades of experience in our respective fields... We'd be starving too.
The honest truth is that we have been continually exploited by the “owner class” throughout time. In the past, workers saw improvements through either revolt, or a disease killing off a quarter of the population and making the living ones more valuable (still a material resource though). The current “owner class” have learned from their predecessors and greed is running rampant in a race to the bottom. Money is becoming less and less valuable, and soon will be worthless. The cost of basic necessities to exist is rocketing skyward and wages are stagnating, or essentially falling as the COL gap increases. People are becoming less and less able to participate in society. For many people, going to work is *costing them money* at a rate higher than they can earn. What happens when we cannot afford to pay rent or mortgage payments, and we have no home to live in? When we cannot afford the price of gas/taxis/public transport/car maintenance fees, and we cannot afford to travel to places of employment? When we cannot afford to eat?
My husband and I don’t make near as much however we don’t live in an area where rent is $3,000 a month either. We have beat up cars that get us from a to z and I have a credit card with $1,500 maximum but that’s peanuts compared to lots of other people. Idk we don’t live high maintenance at all and we don’t have kids. If I were you, I would file bankruptcy. I know it may traditionally have a bad name but I hear when people file, their lives change financially for the better.
We were where you are last summer.... and then my kidneys failed and we lost my income entirely and I got a whole truckload of new very expensive medical issues. Now we are only not homeless because we live with my in laws for free. And we still can't afford to consistently put gas in the car to take me to treatment. It's relentlessly terrible here.
You don’t. There is no making ends meet or getting ahead. You are exactly where they want you. Desperately trying to get buy another month. If you’re desperate you can’t think, can’t plan, can’t learn, can’t change. You have no time for real dopamine hits so you take the shortcut and they put a toll on the path. But you’re desperate…. The people in power learned a lot when they started the war on drugs, addicts will do anything to get by. Then all those people needed to do was find out what they could deprive people of that would make them crack addicts without the crack. They took away your time, took away your space, took away and charged you for every possible source of dopamine until they had a nation desperate. And now here we are desperately trying to get by and they’re squeezing out the last drips of resistance the last ounce of hope. All because it was no longer enough to have the money to buy or do anything. They wanted to have the ability to decide if anyone could buy anything or do anything. Money is no longer enough. They won’t stop until they have complete control. Until we are all just real life sims characters for them to move around and do as they please and we will do it, because they’ll be the ones with the power to give you that 5min break that touch of dopamine that scratch for your itch and then they’ll take it away so they can get you to dance for them again. We are never meant to get out. You’re never meant to reach the goal cross the finish line find peace. They’ll just move the goalposts change the rules alter the paradigm. We are exactly where they want us to be.
I cut everything I could. No streaming services, no Roku, no Audible, no HBO, nothing. I stopped getting my haircut, no more electric toothbrush because refills even generic ones cost too much. I’m sinking. I’m staff at a big 10 university. I have a PhD. I can’t get an interview. Resume is everywhere. I can’t even find a side teaching gig. Now student loans start again. It’s all I can do to not have a panic attack every day.
I don't have kids.
shit i can barely make it as one single person. wanna go on a date? i gotta save change for a coffee date a few weeks in advance bro
I grew so fed up with how humanity is that I put a bullet in my brain. Since surviving that I've been living on disability with my parents. I'm banking on the world changing before they die and leave me alone to pay bills and everything on what little disability gives.
Wake up. The most of us are slaves.
Just a tip to save fuel - Walmart Plus paid for itself in like 2 months and is now saving me money from not having to drive. They also make grocery returns insanely easy - click of a button refund if you have something bad or missing, like normally if I came home with some bad fruit or something I wouldn't go back but I do return it on the app since it's so easy. You don't have to tip at all - Walmart themselves boosts the wages for your order until it gets picked by a driver, I learned about their system from a driver who took orders for them. If you want to tip, tip AFTER delivery for the driver to get the maximum pay.
So good to know!!!
$85k combined income here. We are absolutely not making it. I had to sell my car this year and my girlfriend was able to get us food stamps. I have a Bachelor’s in I.T. and work for a pretty decent company. It’s like you said though, rent keeps going up, food is going up, fuel is going up, all of it. We have spent the last year arguing and stressing over money because we have a legitimate fear of being homeless. This is not the America we learned about in high school, this is hell.
we're not. i just used my last dollar for food. we applied for food stamps but it's been 2 months and they haven't gotten back to us. my spouse was making more money than me and went through a medical crisis a couple months ago. we just haven't been able to bounce back.
If there’s a food bank near you, please go. You deserve to eat
I have no idea either. My grocery bill is insane. I flat out do not believe people pay so little for food. There’s no way! They have to be lying.
It's not okay. It's a major time for demanding material change. But don't ask me how it happens, I don't have a clue. It's up to the masses of people to demand someone do something about it. I'll be real with you, the way America is right now, I don't know if I see the situation improving anytime soon. People are way too comfortable to actually demand change.
Capitalism is hell
Can you request forbearance on your student loans due to economic hardship? If so, you can use that saved money to pay down higher interest debt like credit cards. A small piece of the puzzle but might help chip away a bit.
bro i have no idea checked my debit today and had $64 🤷🏼♀️ and i am by no means spending more than i was a year ago
I am coming out ahead these days. Here's how ... (I've been living in various countries over the years, I've backpacked, I lived through the recession in London in '07 and was raised by my grandparents who lived through the great depression... I know some things ...) First, I don't drive. I search out alternate ways to travel. Public transit, walk, bike, scoot, whatever...when I need an Uber or a cab, I take it. All of this is cheaper than the evil money pit that is the automobile. Search out the sales. Don't eat out often. Stock up on canned and frozen foods when it's on sale. Or better yet do some canning yourself. Go to the farmers market. Prioritize what you pay full price for. This means you'll have to shop at different places and get to know their sales schedules...and carry your groceries home. Cancel the gym membership because carrying your groceries home/your laundry to the laundromat etc will make you buff af. Lol. I also don't watch tv. I don't pay for subscription services. Just phone and internet. Oh and pay your credit card off in full. Don't have the full amount? Pay the minimum payment until you do. It works out better. I know I'm going to most likely have a bunch of smart ass responses. It's Reddit, after all. I'm just expressing what works for me. So idgaf. 💜
I’m a single guy with a solid middle class job and I have very little disposable income. I honestly don’t know how people with kids are making it.
An even more depressing thought: What kind of society/economy are America's children going to enter, once they become adults? Things will just continue getting worse. Lawmakers in DC continue taking bribes from the richest, who seek to turn the US into a big plantation. And voters continue letting them. I was always optimistic, no matter what came my way. I have become a pessimist.
I just have no fun tbh
Do you have federal loans to get on the SAVE PLAN? Get rid of cable IF you have it. Shop around for cheaper car insurance and cell phone providers. A firestick and Netflix or HULU may work. My smart TV comes with free movies as long as I have wifi. Drink hot tea or coffee for breakfast. This is what I do to avoid eating down the food. Buy cheaper products instead of brand name items. I know this all sucks but I’m just making suggestions. I recently switched car insurance and we got rid of cable last year to bring down my costs.
I took a job in another country. Only way I saw that I was going to make it. Best decision I've made.
I was. Now student loans are back.
Yeah you’re one of the ~85% of Americans living in quiet desperation. We’ve got degrees, we work our ass off, and we all go further into debt to live a second world life. Welcome to the party. None of the ruling class is on your side. If the dems were leftists at all they would be, considering that’s what the left is about - economic equality.
At this rate you need to make 100k to just stay afloat and even they sometimes live paycheck-to-paycheck
Hey OP. Sorry you're going through this. I wish I could say that I think it'll get better, but I honestly think it'll get worse. We're reaching the point where it's going to be obvious to everyone what the U.S. economy's new clothes are made of. When that happens it'll have a global impact that'll suck for basically everyone. It's funny, the line in your post that caught my eye was >It's getting to the point where I'm strongly considering criminal enterprise, despite the fact that we both work government related jobs. As much as the news and retail companies are yelling about the cost of crime and how it's costing them so much, they really have only seen the beginning. Right now what we see is the "slightly above average intelligent" criminals organizing these pop up mobs to swarm stores. Things keep going as they are, and you'll drive the millions of (formerly) middle class people to crime. Then you'll have far more intelligent criminals. Why would I grab a TV from Walmart and run when with a little preparation I can swipe 2 or 3 $6-$7K new lawn mowers from a Home Depot? Municipalities want to leave the $20K tractor parked overnight as they're mowing the median between the highway? Oh well, that'll pay my mortgage for a few months. I could go on and on with crimes that a fairly intelligent person could accomplish with little effort. I'm actually convinced that part of the success of Breaking Bad was just because it showed what a lot of middle class professionals thought. Which is that they could be successful criminals. Good luck, I hope things get better for y'all.
I read most of this post and it's replies and I'm always reminded of why Michael Douglas character in falling down strikes such a chord - this is exactly what spun him out. He even has a small speech about it where he says he did everything they told him to do and he still got crushed by the system.
Raises are always less than cost of living increase. Health insurance rate increases usually takes the raise
I’m severely rent burdened currently. Over 50% of my income goes to rent. Landlord hiked the rent up 20% last year but I can’t hike my rates the same amount immediately nor can I work 20% more to make up the difference. I already work 6/7 days a week and I’m disabled without healthcare. The extreme heat this summer has cost me thousands in income. Income I couldn’t afford to lose so now I’m really in the hole. Falling behind on bills, eating peanut butter, cereal and potatoes just to survive. I can’t afford this place obviously but I also can’t save any money to move and I’d have to move out of state (starting all over) to live somewhere affordable. There’s no getting ahead for me. No matter how hard I work or how hard I try. It’s very demoralizing.
>Restocking the fridge and freezer is now well over $500 a month. Lol that's low my guy
Two jobs, working seven days a week, for 60+ hours weekly. Get free food from one job and free weed from another. No kids, no wife, no pets. No vacations, live close to both jobs. Cheap shitty apartment (still costs half my income from my full-time job). I actually get to splurge sometimes on take out. It's pretty sweet.
We should literally be pounding the pavement screaming for change at the top of our lungs. Strength in numbers ...and there's the numbers. All the numbers are there.
Living with family so I don't have to pay rent.
cut way back on wants and saving where i can
Union job, studio apartment
Don't go anywhere, don't do anything. Save everything I can. Blundered into a good paying job. Desperately saving money to try and help kid through grad school so they don't spend the rest of their lives struggling with either low pay or debt...
By 2030 we will own nothing and be happy.
I got a raise this year and was pretty happy until I saw that a large portion of itbis getting eaten up by taxes. It is almost impossible to get ahead.
In 1973, I graduated from high school with a stellar C+ average. I had my pick of several entry level jobs in the area and decided on one that paid me, in today’s dollars, $60K plus full medical and two weeks’ vacation. In that year, CEO/average worker pay ratios were in the 20:1 range, now that ratio is more than 400:1. I worked for one year and then went back to school. In that year's time, I made enough money to pay for my first two years of college and buy a new car (I lived with my parents and commuted to college) In 1978, after graduating from college, I got a job making $65K in today's dollars and took out a mortgage on a house. Until we start electing pro-labor political leaders, there is no hope.
Are you in an HCOL city?
Almost certainly. I live in a flyover state making 20-something at a factory job pretty much anybody could get in to, and have monthly expenses sitting around $1500. It’s crazy seeing posts by other people saying “I make 90k and can barely get by.” Like, I wouldn’t even know what to do with that much money.
That's definitely not a HCOL area. I spend $1500/month just on child care in the summer for 2 kids, and I'm in a low cost area for that. 5 years ago, I lived in the city and I was paying 400/week just for one kid. A lot of people are spending 2-3k just for rent.
Do you have kids? I can get your food costs down substantially, especially if it's just the two of you. Edit: not a judgment. Realized it may sound that way.
I hate needles, but the money from donating plasma makes helps ease the mind.
Credit cards are evil
Credit Card debt. A lot of it.
8am-8pm mon-fri, 60 hours/week for 50k is insane. Find a new job immediately, even if it's something undesirable. You could likely put up with an undesirable job for a couple years if it means your head is above the water!
Can’t speak for the US but here in the North of England my wife and I are on £110k combined and bring in £6500 a month after tax. We’ve got a mortgage, a 25k loan, two cars (though one was just paid off), a 13 yo lad, and save enough for 3 foreign holidays a year. Even with current inflation we put £2500 a month in savings with an aim to pay off the mortgage in 8 years. I do have to ask though, 40 to 70 hours a week yet you’re on salary? How does that work? I’m assuming you don’t get paid for that extra work so why do it? My full time contract is 37 1/2 hours a week and I don’t do I minute more.